Well, we didn't get to see much of Louisville. It was dark when we landed and still dark when we headed outside to catch the crew van back to the airport in the morning. Pick-up time was at 5:45 AM Eastern time....That was 4:45 for our crew that was all Dallas based and operating our bodies on Central time. I didn't get a good nights sleep either....seems that our hotel is situated right underneath final approach to one of the main runways at Louisville. All night long I could hear the UPS freighters arriving. Such is the life of an airline pilot....I would be glad when the day was over.
It was still raining when we taxied out to runway 17R. Our first takeoff attempt took us about 200 ft before I aborted. One of our EPR (engine pressure ratio) gauges was acting up. It's one of the main gauges in determining how much power an engine is developing. We pulled off the runway and ran up the engine a few times and soon the gauge was working fine. So we gave it another try and it worked...we made a successful takeoff bound for DFW.
After landing at DFW we taxied by an American Trans Air Lockheed-1011 TriStar. They were preparing to board a bunch of soldiers and take them to the Middle East. DFW is a big boarding point for military missions like this.
Then it was on down to McAllen, Tx and back to DFW. Full each way. While waiting for our takeoff from McAllen, there was a Navy T-45 Goshawk doing touch and go's. It had flown down from Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. They looked more like carrier landings but maybe that's what the Navy trains for!
So what about the Northwest tails? Look at the photos again....(the white spots are just raindrops caught in the camera flash)
The small triangle is supposed to be a compass pointer. It's supposed to be pointing to the northwest as in "Northwest Airlines". The left photo has the pointer pointing to the northeast. The right one is correct and points to the northwest.
So depending on which side of the plane you are looking at, you will see the compass pointer either pointing northeast or northwest. Maybe they didn't realize the goof up before they painted the entire fleet.
Enjoy the holiday....I'll back back after Christmas.
For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple
Monday, December 24, 2007
Tail Me The Answer
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1 comment:
Len,
Interesting about the NWA tails. I never noticed that before. The T-45 Goshawk would be from NAS Kingsville, TX not too far from NAS Corpus. There are 2 T-45 squadrons based there. VT-21 and VT-22. Every landing a student naval aviator makes is a simulated carrier landing meaning now flare. Just hold the optimum AOA and wait for the touchdown. Sure takes a lot of the guess work out of the landing process. I've been working on a blog entry about my carrier qual experience in the T-45. You'll have to check back later in the week. I've been converting HUD video to a useable medium so I can put some of the passes on the blog. Have a Merry Christmas!
Darren
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